Parallel Health offers a consumer service that pairs a home swab testing kit with sequencing (via Illumina) and a proprietary automated analysis to place users into one of eight skin microbiome types. The company then ships a serum formulated with phages engineered to attack the bacteria associated with that type; users are encouraged to retest roughly every six months as microbiomes shift. Parallel spun out of a project at a larger cosmetics company after founders Natalise Kalea Robinson and Nathan Brown decided to pursue customized phage treatments. In building the service the team has cultured largely novel microbes (the article reports 90% of cultured strains were novel) and is creating a data library to inform future products and research. The founders say no CRISPR or other high‑risk bioengineering is required for their serums, and they have had early interest in licensing certain phages. The site and service are live, the company has thousands on a waiting list, and Parallel revealed a $2.3M pre‑seed financing at launch.

Total raised

$2M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Sep 2023